My eyes never stopped moving from left to right with occasional glances over my shoulder and my ears were tuned for any unusual sounds. Unusual other than the two drunk girls and one guy trying to keep them quiet that is. I made sure Danielle's hand was gripping my vest from the back and kept a tight grip on Bridget and a tighter grip on her tit. I didn’t intend to lose either of them at this point. Besides I was horny and getting hornier.
We made it to the back entrance and I saw that the brush wall was still pulled out. It actually moved freely. This was part of a dead woodpile. I had carefully tied and cemented all the bits and pieces together then hinged it over the back door, which was really an oval door. A dark brown blanket glued to the back completed it. However, the best part was it worked great and was time well spent. Damn thing was totally hidden and practically invisible. Caitlin had never noticed it. I lived in half dread for a couple years wondering if she would.
I saw Michael crouched in the opening with my AR-15 held steady in his hands. He jumped when he saw me and immediately raised the muzzle. I breathed a sigh of relief. You never know what might happen when people get jumpy while holding a loaded rifle. He looked so happy I thought he was going to cry again. I'd have to talk to him about that. Real men don't cry. Or when we do, we pray like hell nobody notices.
We entered, walking down the short corridor to the back entrance into the shelter. Michael brought up the rear, closing the door after running a brush over our tracks. We had discussed this several times and Michael knew to blur out any obvious footprints.
Everyone was there and greeted all of us happily. Then they also recoiled from the smell. The girls were quite aromatic as I said. Well Michael and I were also because of that damn kerosene. I grabbed the girls and turned left. The bathroom with its small shower was very much needed.
"Michael. You go first. Make it quick. Water conservation, dude." He nodded and started stripping. I turned my back so did the girls. Way too much hair on that large body. Quick rinse then scrubs and after that another quick rinse and he was done. I would have shoved one of the girls in with him, Danielle to be exact but Becky was giving all of us the eye as it was. What was wrong with that woman? She knew we had a limited water reservoir. I had carefully explained it.
"Becky could you grab three sets of sweats from my room please? We need to clean up and like right now. Have Momma Jean involve the kids in something and away from here please. I'm sure there's a movie they could be watching." I turned to the girls now.
"Okay strip. Seriously no arguing. You need to get clean." I reached into the shower stall and started the water again, turning the knob to warm and started removing clothing. The girls hesitated. I started stripping them. "No way are you girls coming inside my retreat smelling and looking like that! Especially around the kids." I exclaimed. "Strip and shower." They obeyed and quickly started removing clothing.
Becky showed up at that moment with bundles of clothing from my room. Her eyes grew really big; as the girls were already half undressed as was I. Bridget was topless having removed her coat. Her bra still hanging from the pole overhead Wesco. Impressive is the only words that came to mind.
"Oh no, no, no, and NO!" She exclaimed. "Jay. The girls first then you. Get out of here now." She ordered. What the hell, I thought?
"Michael" I hollered.
"What?" Michael came running in. We were all down to our boxers by then. Well me. The girls were in panties and nothing else and looking cold. Michael slid to a stop. Took a look, glanced at me and my angry expression and then his wife and her angry expression then the girls again. I noticed he didn't turn away. They did have really nice boobs. Did I mention it was a bit chilly? Yeah, it was quite obvious when looking at the them.
I was cold and filthy. I was also furious. "Explain to your wife why the three of us will take a shower together with the last of the water." I growled.
Michael looked at his wife in disbelief. She shook her head, now emphatically, and had that fat chick stance that indicated she wasn't to be moved, then started talking about they were girls I was a guy and all that stupid shit. "Hun," he said. "There is only enough water in the tank for one more shower. It takes hours to refill it. We talked about this yesterday. They can't take separate showers. They all need to get clean. Jesus woman. WAKE UP!" he shouted. Then grabbed her arm and dragged her away. Good. That was twice now she had gotten really stupid on us. I vowed to have a talk with him later about this. That was exactly twice too many right now with all the shit happening. I pulled my briefs off then grabbed Bridget and stripped her boy shorts off with one hand. Danielle got the idea and pulled her panties off quickly. I turned the water up high, hot, and shoved them both under the scalding water.
We took turns washing each other, and quickly. I kept telling them to hurry. Long hair takes some time to wash and we all had that particular issue. I soaped up both girls while they scrubbed each other and me. I made sure to leave no spot untouched on Bridget. She returned the favor and I found myself getting hard again. Wow, she was sexy as hell when squeaky-clean. Obviously coming down off her buzz but smiling like crazy. They both were, and having fun. Even Danielle was giggling. We did a final rinse and I shoved them out to thick towels Michael or someone must have brought in and dumped on the floor. I was having a slight issue with my half hard-on.
"Damn it girls. Look what you did to me." I joked. I made no effort to hide it. I'm not shy.
"Ha!" Danielle laughed. "I think that was Bridget did that to you." she thought it was extremely funny for some reason but it had been a few weeks since I'd had any sex and control wasn't at the top of my list of priorities right now.
"You know girls; we should continue this conversation in my bedroom. You can thank me properly for saving you." I grinned." Danielle laughed again but I noticed she could not take her eyes off my huge manhood as she toweled herself off.
"I'm married. You know that. Bridget will have to do." She laughed again and started pulling a pair of sweats on quickly, four sizes too big for her. I winked at Bridget and she winked back. Yay. Okay, we got dressed as the sight of their naked flesh made it impossible for my hard on to go down. Wayne and Momma Jean along with Pete and Sandy were waiting outside the bathroom entrance and hugged both girls as they came out. Neither said anything to me nor remarked about the obvious bulge in my sweatpants. Good.
It was time to do some recon. The way Bridget was staying close to me I figured that old fantasy of mine was about to become reality later in the evening. I went in and played with my kids for a while. They love Yatzee. I really needed to do a recon but it could wait for a couple hours while I spent some time with them. My kids were more important and I simply missed them. Maria and her three were fitting right in with all of us. I noticed she looked my way often, and Michael’s way. Well that was nice. I think.
The perimeter alarm went off again. Did I tell you I could get fully dressed in under a minute? We headed up.
*****
DAY 3: 1500
It had been a very productive morning and afternoon so far. Many hundreds of souls had been reaped that day for the Lord to sort out. His dead eyes surveyed the homes below him from his perch at the top of the cell tower just outside town. He had carefully climbed the tower earlier leaving his backpack hidden away down below. All he needed were his bottles of water, a couple cans of food, and an old tarp he had found to make a comfortable nest between the solar panels. The structure beneath him was alive. An almost subsonic hum permeated the air surrounding it and the metal was warm under his body. He didn't know if the tower was actually transmitting or not as he had never owned a cell phone. Maybe if he had one earlier, then ... He shut that thought down. What if’s no longer mattered. So, he had spent the day up there being the Lords Reaper. He didn't miss. He never missed.
He now had his binoculars out and was watching a survivor paint the top of his roof. 'Jay HELP', was boldly printed in white on its dark surface. Who was Jay? He also saw the clever way they had
rigged a mirror in the window opening of the cupola. The angle of the mirror would allow them to reflect the afternoon sun towards the woods bordering the housing district. Earlier he had watched a running gun battle between a couple of men and several groups of the undead. That had been interesting also. Especially when he had climbed down and followed them, then witnessed the man save two more women from the Wesco a short distance up the road. That guy was a busy one for sure. He had almost ended his misery but being the pragmatic sort, he didn't really know if this man was miserable or not. He might also be on a mission for the Lord, so he let him be.
Peering into the woods, he could vaguely make out a two story home near its center but hidden by the tall oaks that mostly filled the large tract. They had headed there, the man with the girls and the earlier party. The Reaper's dead eyes swiveled back to the home with the ‘HELP’ sign and mirror then back to the home in the woods. Perhaps this was Jay. If the survivors in the subdivision were still alive tomorrow, perhaps he would let this Jay know they were there. He would think on it. In the meantime, he raised the rifle to his shoulder taking careful aim at one of the undead almost a thousand meters away and fired immediately chambering another round. He didn't need his binoculars to see the head erupt in a pink spray of bone and brains. The explosion of undead particles was easily visible from where he lay. He raised his rifle again taking careful aim through the scope. He had a mission to fulfill and it wouldn't hurt anything to reap undead souls for the Lord near where the survivors had taken refuge. He fired.
*****
DAY 3: 1700
Jean kneaded the bread dough and sighed. She missed her kids. She was so frustrated. Oh, she was happy the Amish had saved her life. The Elder of the local Amish parish had heard that first shot of hers and come to investigate. She had no idea that while she slept the night in that farmers field the entire area had become surrounded with these creatures. Upon hearing that shot Elder Jedediah had taken his six sons and several of the other men holed up at this farm and come to her rescue, accurately assuming someone was in dire need of help. There were thousands and thousands of the undead surrounding the extended farm now and it had been very carefully fortified with fencing and building materials from other farms around it. This was their stand and they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Annie entered behind her lugging a large basket of potatoes. The first batch of bread in the oven was almost done and the smell was mouth watering. The fare here was good but simple. Fresh baked bread, potatoes and some meat, usually beef or jerked venison that had been soaked overnight and put in a stew was the daily staple. Plenty of fresh water hand pumped from a nearby well provided drink. The people were friendly but not overly so, slightly reserved, though there was a definite welcome air.
"Jean. Is the dough ready?" Annie inquired. Jean gave the large lump of white dough a couple good whacks to relieve a bit more of her frustration and nodded.
"Yes, Annie." Annie took over and with practiced hands, divided the huge mass into five equal parts then quickly shaped them into the traditional loaf form.
"Good because the yeast will be making it rise soon. Now they need to set for a short while before we put them in the oven." Annie smiled at her. Of all the girls here, she was probably the friendliest. As Jedediah's middle daughter, she had lost two older brothers to the creatures during the first day of attacks. Everyone here had lost close relatives. This community that had once been spread out over more than a dozen miles and held literally hundreds of the Amish was reduced to one larger farm with barracks for the men, and women with children quickly thrown up. She had seen many around, all working at various tasks. They never rested and worked from sunup to sundown but their numbers couldn't have been more than fifty.
The day's events had blended as she became occupied with the routine of chores given her. Jedediah had put her to work right away. He said this virus was God's punishment for the wickedness of man. Maybe so, but she doubted it. She sure wasn't a saint but she knew without a doubt her children were innocent and didn't deserve this. Annie had told her the previous night they'd had a terrible scare. The creatures could always be heard in the distance. After awhile you just sort of tuned them out, but that's not what had scared them. One of the guards had come running in shortly after all the lamps were turned down and they were preparing for sleep. He claimed there were sounds that shouldn't be. The guards name was Samuel and his face was white as the sheets she was getting ready to lay between, according to Annie. The sounds were coming from the graveyard.
The Amish had their own graveyards. Each family having their own little plot. On this farm, it had become a rather large community plot. The sounds came from within its borders. Lamps had been turned up and more ignited as they clustered around the graves. The sounds were coming from within the ground under one of those freshly dug. Little Sarah rested there. She had been sixteen but had died from acute appendicitis the previous day. They had no doctors, no way to get to a doctor during this emergency and it had been sudden. Two young men with shovels dug the grave up carefully. What they found was a horror.
Sarah had turned after death. The sound emanating from the ground had been the bones of her fingers scratching their way through the simple pine coffin these good folk had constructed out of love and religious respect. When they finally uncovered her, the flesh had been long gone from her fingers. She had been digging for a day and consuming her own flesh in hunger. Annie told Jean she had gotten sick and threw up, as did many of the other women and not a few men. They ended up having to pierce her brain with a shovel to eliminate her struggles to get out. It was a horrible story and experience for them, thought Jean. The scary part of the story was Sarah had been to the doctor just three weeks ago and been given a clean bill of health while receiving the vaccination. Too many clues were starting to add up.
The meal partially prepared, they waited and that was the hardest part for Jean. The Amish ate their dinner when the sun went down during the fall and winter months. The meals were sometimes prepared hours beforehand. They were a very structured and methodical people she had come to realize. She couldn't say she had made many lasting friendships but she was glad she had met them and that they had come to her rescue. It was dusk but not quite nightfall and the men were only now just starting to arrive.
Only here a day and a half and she was already anxious and bored. Boredom was coming in a close second to the anxiety she felt for her children and parents. It was hard not to cry and scream at God for the circumstances of her current situation. Elder Jedediah said they would keep a sharp eye out for any other groups of survivors passing by, not that it would be much help as they were completely surrounded by the turned. But still they kept watch.
Smoke could be seen in the far distance from several directions. Cities burning? Homes? Nobody knew. Faintly, they could occasionally hear scattered gunshots. Some were automatic weapons but mostly single shots. She took the few moments she had before being called to dinner to check her cell phone again. The battery was getting low so she left it off and only turned it on when trying to get a call out.
It powered up with a decent signal of three bars. She hit redial for her parents. Ringing. Connecting. Then almost silence with a strange background hum. She shook her phone.
"Hello? Hello? Anyone there? Dad? Mom?" she spoke urgently into the phone praying that anyone would answer. Would talk to her from beyond the boundaries of the farm she was trapped in. Nothing. It disconnected. Damn it to hell. Frustrated she turned the phone off again to conserve the battery. She thought of her kids then and held them in her thoughts as she went downstairs for dinner.
An hour and a half of dishes later she was too tired to stay up any longer. She simply wasn't used to a full day of chores every day. Her narrow bed beckoned to her and she collapsed on it trying her cell phone again. Signal yes. Connection no. Not this time. It didn't matter what number she tried dialing all she got was a beeping that usually indicated a disconnected number.
She gave up powering it down and fell asleep quickly, and dreamed…
Eric and Beverly were playing in the living room. Jean was laying on the couch watching a rerun of Desperate Housewives. Her form of punishment was to watch incredibly smart women repeat countless stupid mistakes while making complete asses of themselves. She had to admit the drama was pretty complex though. It was truly amazing how many plots they had going at one time. She stretched out making herself more comfortable as Beverly stopped playing and looked her way. "Momma," her little girl called. "Who are these people?" She didn't understand what Beverly was talking about. No one was here. Eric looked up with a happy face. "Momma can I play with the men?" His voice pleaded with her. "Let me play with the men, momma." Jean was confused. What men? She looked up from her show. Standing in the doorway to the living room was a crowd of the undead. Just standing there. When they saw her eyes fall on them, they finally moved, reaching for the two children playing on the floor. "Nooooooo!" she screamed.
"Jean wake up please."
Annie's voice filtered through the air of her living room and a flickering light seemed to be coming from the front window. She was trying to get up but her body would only move sluggishly. She could only watch as the undead reached her children, bending down with hands outstretched, blood dripping from their faces. She screamed again and sat up as Annie's voice came in loud and frantic beside her. Hands were shaking her shoulders.
"Jean you're having a nightmare. Wake up please." It was Annie. It had all been a bad dream after all. She started sobbing into Annie's shoulder, the younger girl holding her gently as Jean cried.
Blood, Brains and Bullets Page 11